Secret Service dogs praised for stopping White House intruder

Washington: Jordan and Hurricane, the agile two members of the US Secret Service's canine unit have achieved something that humans in the agency have been hard- pressed to do recently: effectively guarding the President and his family.

What the dogs, both Belgian Malinois, did was stop a 23- year-old intruder who had managed to get over the White House fence on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama was at the White House at the time of the incident.

The dogs knocked Dominic Adesanya to the ground and bit him. As he tried to fend the dogs off, Secret Service officers moved in and arrested him.

But before he was overpowered, Adesanya gave five-year- old Jordan a kick to his snout while Hurricane, 6, was slammed to the ground and repeatedly punched.

Both were rushed to a veterinarian for treatment and he has determined that the dogs had sustained only minor injuries and were cleared for duty.

Jordan and Hurricane have received a day off work as a reward.

The White House has praised role played by the Secret Service's furrier agents in arresting Adesanya.

"The animals that performed so bravely last night are not something that we come into regular contact with here," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday.

"The individual last night probably saw pretty vividly why we all keep our distance," he joked of the police dogs.

The K-9 canine unit of the agency posted on Twitter pictures of the dogs sitting with their tongues wagging, and posed between American and Secret Service flags.

The agency said on Twitter that Jordan "enjoys walks around" the White House, and that Hurricane "enjoys playing with his Kong toy."

Adesanya, who was unarmed, when he was arrested, has been charged with two felony counts of assaulting a police officer, four misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and unlawful entry, and a felony count of making threats.

"They (Jordan and Hurricane) performed their duties flawlessly and, at least for a day, lifted the morale of a Secret Service that had been rocked by a series of embarrassing incidents," the New York Times commented.

Agency officials decided to use dogs to tackle intruders because they were faster than humans and their bite, while fierce, was far less lethal than a gunshot.

Wednesday's incident is the second time someone jumped the fence at the White House in the last month.

In mid-September, a man scaled the fence and armed with a knife, made it into the White House before he was detained.

The September 19 incident preceded the disclosure of other serious breaches in security for President Obama and ultimately led to Julia Pierson's resignation as director of the Secret Service after 18 months on the job.